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...it sounds like Del's newest creation is more along the lines of what's currently in vogue on here...

I guess you can say that but the knife is still not the flattest knife around, nor is it thick being 2 mm or less at its thickest point, the heel is pretty tall, too. The feel is unlike any other knife I've tried out. I'd characterize your statement as a bit of a stretch, really.

Originally Posted by Justin0505

...I don't think that it means that he "finally made a good knife", it just means that he made a different style blade than the thin, flexy stuff that he made before...

Yes and no. Yes, it is a different style (less ultrathin German and more very thin Japanese). The reason the new ones are superior in cutting performance has nothing to do with flexibility and everything to do with geometry. That isn't an opinion. It is physics. (unless all you're doing is mincing herbs or something)

Originally Posted by Justin0505

...(which seemed to be a very popular style during the blade thinning fad a short while ago)...

The "fad" to which you refer rarely saw thinning an entire blade. It was really about thinning behind the edge and in some cases adding convexity (or some semblance of it) to an otherwise flattish blade geometry. This fad is alive and well. To reject thinning (or thickening) is to embrace a one edge fits all mentality and to ignore thinning is is to leave untapped performance on the table.

A convex grind or blended bevels style blade is not a fad. It has just been talked about extensively recently. Every successful knife company has some sort of similar grind on their knives. Even the ones we don't like, but are still successful with the mainstream do (yes I am referring to Shun and Wustof and companies of their ilk). And the ones who do it extremely well (Shigefusa, Carter, Masamoto, Heiji, etc.) have long been regarded as some of the best performing cutters out there. If you can make a knife that cuts like a Shige or a Carter, your knives will be popular for years and years, regardless of current trends. They are actually excellent proof of that, seeing as they both have significant "cons"; the Shiges highly reactive cladding and Carter's poor handles and inconsistencies; do not out weigh their sheer ability to cut food. Even with tons of other knives out there that perform reasonably well and have great handles and low/non reactive steels, people are still lining up and waiting for a Shigefusa or a Carter.

Its now been almost 2 years since I really become interested in kitchen knives, which started with me meeting a german kitchen knife maker Roman Landes, he was a guest demonstrator at the ashokan knife seminar. He brought a couple of damascus slicers with him to the show and I was hooked. I came home and made 3 kitchen knives almost right away. One of them sold, one I am still using as my regular kitchen knife, and the final one which is a 225mm gyuto(kind of) that was the knife that Dave Martell saw at ashokan last year. After I met Dave and started talking to him on a regular basis, I also started hanging out at the ITK forum, and also reading posts about japanese knives, some of the ones I went back 2 years. I saw many posts about lasers and also about thinning. So I set out to make some lasers. I was very confident in my work, and Dave once told me it was not possible to go to thin, well I have found out that it is possible to go too thin. With my discovery it seems that the fad of lasers has faded, and that other issues have come to the fore. Given that I have not been a member of this group for long, I cannot say much about past trends, however it seems like any time someone comes along and wants a pure performing knife one name comes up again and agian, and that is Murry Carter. So after my issues with a too thin knife, started to take a hard look at what he was doing, and along with a couple of members of this board worked on redesigning both the profile and the grind. I now understand all the threads about thinning and why it is necessary especially with the convex grind. The feedback I have gotten on my handles has been universally positive, with the design, construction, and the materials I use. I believe that the changes I have made in profile and using the convex grind, I have made a knife that has comparable cutting characteristics to Carters with a superior stee and heat treat, and a fully finished blade with the beautiful handles I am known for. Since they are handmade, or benchmade if you prefer, there will be slight differences between knives, but at this time I believe I am making truely excellent kitchen knives in all aspects.
Thanks,
Del

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Laminated metals specialist, Kitchen knife and gadget maker
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